My granddaughter and I are thinking about starting to make knives. I am planning to purchasing a Majestic Forge Artist Deluxe five burner Forge . I also make metal art and will use the forge for things other that knives so I want one that can do knives, swords and long pieces, etc. Is this a good quality forge? Will it meet our needs?

Any information, suggestions and/or comments will be greatly appreciated.

That is a lot of forge! 37" in length will burn thru a lot of gas quickly. I would much rather have the 2 or 3 burner forge that is shorter and uses less gas. The length of even the largest blade can be heated evenly passing the length thru the flame for heat treating or normalizing. My main forge is a two burner and about 17" in length and so far I have been able to forge any sized blade and some other blacksmithing things.

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Just saying; and you can make the inside round except for a 3" wide floor. A round forge is more efficient as it heats more evenly with properly place burners. It helps to prevent having hot spots. That one they are showing at their web site looks like it just blows straight down, which may be OK for smithing, but for swords and knives you would need to move the part back and forth to heat treat with it. I also noticed that it doesn't have doors and has a large inside chamber, that forge is going to use up a lot of propane and is more of a blacksmith forge than a knife making one. Here is a link to a forge building how to video and only thing wrong with the one he's making is it doesn't have a back door for pass through. But it gives a good idea on how to build one.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnMj4TjKjk&t=158s

My brother and I made one that had two large burners angled to create a vortex blowing slightly to the rear. It was on the diagram my brother found that we were copying and worked really well. We learned to regulate it and could control the temperature very closely after he put a temp gauge on it and it helps immensely when heat treating.

But you know your budget and fabricating skill level. I will say we didn't know how to build a gas forge, but we knew the coke forge was a lot more work, took a lot more time and left us dirty when working with it for very long.

Be sure to use shaded safety glasses to look inside the forge, your eyes will thank you as the light is brighter than it seems and the intense infrared light can harm your eyes in the long term. I soon learned not to look directly at it when I'd retrieve a part I was forging, hard to hammer when all you see is spots before your eyes. We kept the forge area dim when doing knives, better to gauge the colors.

I know guys on TV or YouTube often don't wear safety glasses, but one hot popping spark will ruin your day and maybe alter your life, wear safety glasses or better, a tinted face shield as it protects your whole face.

Thanks for all of the great advice and suggestions. I have looked at a number of YouTube videos about how to build a forge. However, I'm old and I don't know whether or not my granddaughter, the forge is really for her, and I are up to building a forge. Money isn't a problem so I will probably buy one. However, it sounds like I need to look at more forges.

I would appreciate it if someone could recommend a good forge to buy. It sounds like I need to look for a round one with only three adjustable burners and a shorter length with doors.

If you are close enough to one, contact Mayland college, there are more than one and talk to the guy who teaches the blacksmith class in Burnsville and see if they won't fabricate a forge for you in the weld class and you supply the materials. For $600 they can make you a great forge. Or contact a local sheet metal shop or weld shop. For $650 I'm sure somebody will make you a nice custom forge.